After waiting for the moment when Amalia fell asleep, I quietly left the room.
Of course, I couldn't just leave it like that, and I needed to get some medicine for her. Nevertheless, doing so was difficult. And all because of our status as orphan commoners.
Medicine in the empire was very expensive, and only aristocrats could afford it. While commoners had to make do with ordinary medicinal herbs.
Thus, in our infirmary there were also no special fever-reducing medicines. The only thing the nurse could offer in such a case was a medicinal herb with similar properties.
Well then, I would have to make do with what was available.
I went into the infirmary and asked for a little medicinal herb there, citing that I felt unwell. Fortunately, the nurse already had a lot of her own work, so she didn't pay much attention to me, simply giving me the herb.
After that I went to the kitchen to prepare something for Amalia.
The best option would have been to make chicken broth with added medicinal herbs. Nevertheless, this was impossible, since I had no meat. As commoners, we rarely could eat meat, and in the orphanage we were given a small portion only on holidays.
Thus, instead of that, I decided to prepare something else.
Rice porridge was also useful during illness, right? So I decided to make it.
Having sorted out all the necessary ingredients, I set the rice porridge to cook and waited for about forty minutes. Then, when everything was ready, I sprinkled the porridge with medicinal herbs.
I won't say that my cooking skills are especially high, but I still hoped that it would be tasty.
Having finished preparing the porridge, I was about to return to our room as quickly as possible. But... I hadn't even managed to leave the kitchen when I unexpectedly heard laughter and voices from outside.
These sounds made me freeze in place and press myself against the wall.
Looking out, I saw that it was Mebius with his gang. The three boys were laughing and talking about something I couldn't hear. Nevertheless, what alarmed me most was that the direction they were walking could only lead to one place. It was the library.
Damn it.
What could boys like them have forgotten there?
Since I knew that neither Mebius nor any of his friends was particularly interested in studying, the goal could only be one.
It was Erica.
Were they really going there because of her?!
Although just a moment ago I had been full of determination to return to our room as quickly as possible, now I involuntarily froze.
In my head right now there was only one thought: was Erica in the library right now? No... that was unlikely, right? What would she be doing there if we weren't there?
Usually Erica never went to the library alone, unless I or Amalia were there. So... this time she probably wasn't there either.
And yet I still hesitated. Should I go and check? Just in case...
It was precisely at that moment, when I was seriously pondering whether I should go to the library right now, that someone suddenly grabbed me.
I was stunned and turned around.
It turned out to be Amalia, whose face was so pale, as if all the blood had drained from her.
"A-Amalia..." I was shocked. "What are you doing here?"
"Hazel!"
I was shocked that Amalia had suddenly appeared here, but I didn't even manage to say anything. All because in the next moment she hugged me very tightly.
She pressed me to herself so tightly that I was surprised that there could be so much strength in this small body. Nevertheless, I was still confused.
"Amalia... what's going on? What are you doing here?"
I gently patted her on the shoulder, but she still refused to let me go.
"Hazel... Hazel... how good that you..."
Instead of answering my question, the girl continued only to mutter something incoherently.
In the end I simply resigned myself and waited until Amalia calmed down and let me go herself. This took several minutes, and she let me go extremely reluctantly, continuing to cling to me until the last moment.
I was puzzled as to why she was behaving like this.
"Hazel..." her voice was a little hoarse. "Where were you just now?"
"Ah..."
I was at a loss.
"When I woke up, you were nowhere to be found."
Her blue eyes looked at me seriously, but at the same time extremely anxiously.
"I just went to the kitchen because I wanted to cook you some porridge. Here, look! It's rice porridge with herbs."
I proudly showed her the porridge I had made myself. But Amalia only glanced at it briefly, as if not attaching much importance, and then looked at me again.
For some reason her hands, still gripping my shoulders, trembled slightly.
"Never... never do that again, all right?" she said this in a slightly trembling voice.
I was in a stupor again.
Not do what? Cook rice porridge or leave without warning?
In any case, seeing her current state, which for some reason was close to panic, I merely nodded.
"All right... as you say."
Only after I said this did Amalia calm down a little. She even smiled slightly, still not taking her gaze off my face, as if trying to remember every feature of it.
"If you're finished, then let's go back."
Amalia took me firmly by the hand, about to lead me away.
I hesitated for a moment, remembering Erica.
But, seeing the state Amalia was in, I simply couldn't leave her alone. So... I decided to simply trust the version that everything was fine with Erica. Surely she wasn't in the library right now.
Taking a deep breath, I turned away and followed Amalia.
We returned to the room. I put Amalia to bed and made her eat at least a few spoonfuls of porridge. She resisted, but I was adamant.
"You have to eat. Otherwise you won't get better."
"...All right."
She ate slowly, but still ate half. Then she leaned back on the pillow and closed her eyes.
"Hazel..."
"Hm?"
"Don't leave. Please..."
"I won't leave. I'll be here."
Amalia squeezed my hand. After a few minutes her breathing became even. She fell asleep.
I sat beside her and looked at her.
What's happening to her? I thought. Why was she so frightened...?
I had no answer. But, nevertheless, I still continued to firmly squeeze her hand.
***
When Mebius and his friends came to the library, they found Erica there.
She was sitting at the table alone. A book lay in front of her, but she wasn't reading it. She was simply looking out the window.
"Oh, look at that," Mebius smirked. "The red-eyed rat is here again. Alone."
Erica didn't turn around. She didn't even move.
"Hey, I'm talking to you!"
Mebius came closer. Yuta and David followed him.
"Are you deaf? Or just stupid?"
Erica slowly turned her head. Her red eyes looked at them with such coldness that Mebius involuntarily took a step back.
"...What do you want?"
"N-nothing," he muttered. "Just... just wanted to say hello."
"Said hello? Leave."
"Hey, don't boss us around!"
David, the youngest of them, frowned.
"Who even are you? Sitting here as if you're a queen."
Erica said nothing. She simply turned back to the window.
For some reason this enraged Mebius most of all.
"All right," he said. "Since you're so proud, let's teach her a lesson!"
They grabbed Erica by the arms. She didn't resist. She simply looked at them with the same icy expression on her face.
"What, not even going to fight?" Yuta smirked.
"Take her to the storeroom. Let her sit there for a while. Maybe she'll smarten up."
They dragged her into a small dark storeroom at the end of the corridor and locked the door.
"Bye, rat!" Mebius shouted through the door. "Maybe someone will come and let you out. If they remember you, of course."
Nevertheless, they didn't leave, but continued to stay outside, cheerfully talking about something.
Erica was left alone.
In the darkness.
She sat down on the floor and leaned her back against the wall.
Several hours passed like this.
Four hours have already passed... she thought. Why hasn't she come yet?
She wondered why during this time Hazel still hadn't learned about what had happened and hadn't come here to rescue her. Instead, there was still not even a hint of her arrival.
Could she really not come?
Erica waited for this moment for several hours. But in the end, when it became obvious that all hopes were meaningless, she sighed in disappointment.
Why hasn't she come? Where is she now?
In the end only one thought came to her mind.
Could they be together right now...?
When Erica thought about this, she could no longer hold back an irritated sigh that escaped her lips.
Well, to hell with it.
In the next moment the storeroom door, which had been locked all this time, flew off its hinges with a crash.
Since this happened so suddenly, the children outside didn't have time to react. And in the end the door fell on one boy and pinned him to the floor. It was Yuta.
"What... what the hell?!"
When something like this suddenly happened, the children were terrified. No one could understand what was happening.
But then they saw Erica, who calmly walked out of the storeroom. Obviously, apart from the fact that she had done it, there was no other option for why the door had suddenly flown off its hinges.
"You... you..." because of this, the children's voices were immediately filled with fear.
Mebius and David began to retreat backward, while Yuta was still lying on the floor, unconscious from being hit by the door.
"Don't come near us... don't come near! Do you hear, monster?"
Nevertheless, their shouts and squeals did not make much of an impression on Erica. Completely calmly she walked forward with a slow and unhurried gait, her hands in her pockets. It was like the grace of a wild beast approaching its prey.
"All right... you brought this on yourselves."
"What..."
"At first I didn't plan to do this. But, considering the situation, I think getting my hands dirty once will be fine."
Before the children had time to realize it, they had already been attacked.
Mebius, who was two heads taller than Erica, was easily knocked out and fell. David got off a little worse. Erica carelessly grabbed him by the hair and slammed his head against the floor. She didn't aim to kill him, so she simply struck once, leaving the boy with a bloodied head on the floor.
After that, straightening up, Erica sighed heavily.
She no longer paid any attention to the unconscious children. All because she was too annoyed for another reason.
After thinking a little, her hand instinctively reached for the inner pocket of her shirt.
But, having habitually fumbled there, Erica did not find a pack of cigarettes. She remembered that right now she was only ten years old, and therefore she had no cigarettes.
This circumstance made her feel even more annoyed.